Posts Tagged ‘Credit Reporting Agencies’

FTC Amends Free Credit Reports Rule To Help Consumers Steer Clear of ‘Free’ Offers that Cost Money

For Release: 2/23/2010
Federal Trade Commission

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/02/facta.shtm

April 2010 companies offering free credit reports must notify consumers that they can go directly to the National outlet for free credit reports.

www.annualcreditreport.com

877-FACT-ACT or 877-322-8228,

The ONLY authorized source under federal law.

There are a good many companies misleading consumers into thinking they can obtain a free credit report through them, only to discover later that they were required to sign up for a 12 month credit monitoring service.

Consumers should know that if they discover they enrolled in a monitoring service, they can call the credit monitoring service and refuse service, to ask for a refund. The credit card will still be charged, but a refund will later be issued.

Also if a consumer wants their credit reports to include credit scoring, that does come at an additional cost.

Just be careful not to listen to the hype on television from companies claiming to provide free credit reports to consumers.

Reporting Periods for Data Contained in Your Credit Report

1. Late Listing can stay on the credit report for 7 years from the date of default. Don’t despair you can do a few things to address the problem.

a. You can write a good will letter to the creditor asking for forgiveness on the reporting.
b. You can ask the creditor if it is possible to re-age the account, meaning after a period of time they forgive the late, reinstate the original interest rate before the default, and remove the listing off of the credit report.
c. Worst case scenario, the negative item remains on the credit report for 7 years, if the account is still open at the end of this period. The account will revert back to positive.
d. Late listings can extend from 30/60/90/120/150 days late.

2. After 150 days the late account updates to charge off, collection, and write off. These can stay on the credit report 7 years plus 6 months for the 30 day late leading to charge off. If you offer payment in full for deletion you might be able to get out of the 7 year reporting.

3. Student Loans can report indefinitely if they remain unpaid; technically one collection agency can keep transferring student loan collections on to the next collection agency. Also there is no statute of limitations on this type of debt meaning they can pursue you for life. Also student loans are not dischargeable through bankruptcy.

4. Judgment – These can remain on the creditor report 7 years from the file date. You may be able to get it off sooner if you:

a. Dispute the validity of the filing, improper service, time barred and such.
b. If you negotiate payment in exchange for Dismissal of the listing. The creditor needs to file the proper documents with the court house, then you obtain a copy and forward it to the credit reporting agency with request for deletion.

5. Bankruptcy – Chapter 13 will stay on the credit report for 7 years, including all of the accounts affected by the bankruptcy. Sometimes people can dispute and get these items off sooner. But you must notify new creditors that you have filed bankruptcy. They can always check with public records at court house to confirm. You would not want to be caught lying to them.

6. Bankruptcy – Chapter 7 will stay on the credit report for 10 years, the accounts included will just show for 7 years. Be sure when the bankruptcy is discharged that you obtain a copy to forward to the credit reporting agency for updating. Make sure all creditors included in the bankruptcy show zero balance with bankruptcy status.

7. Tax Lien – These can remain forever if unpaid, once paid they can remain 7 additional years. I have heard of some tax liens expiring and being released after so many years left unpaid. You just have to check with your local court house to check on this.

Note: If the items are near to the expiration date you might be able to dispute early that the item is obsolete, the credit reporting agency might just drop it early off of the credit report.
KEEP BACK COPIES OF YOUR CREDIT REPORTS – you need them to confirm inaccurate reporting if information gets changed for the expiration – causing extended reporting by re-aging.

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